Thanks John and Max. Although I can't lay claim to capturing those great black and white scenes that we have to largely thank Harry Ainscough for, I do try and copy as many varied areas as possible to show when in the LRO.

Getting regular correspondence these days off people submitting pics to me and some wanting me to send some of the LRO ones to them so they can complete their family tree area photos.

I have around 200 more colour pics to upload soon to the streets ahead and people and places pages and another visit to the LRO coming up to complete the schools section and add to the post war b&W page.

Credit where credit is due Ged.
Your site is a minefield of info. It's a fantastic site. Always updated regulary too. It just gets better and better.
Well done Ged. It must be one of the best "Liverpool Info" sites on the web
Keep up the good work.

Credit where credit is due Ged.
Your site is a minefield of info. It's a fantastic site. Always updated regulary too. It just gets better and better.
Well done Ged. It must be one of the best "Liverpool Info" sites on the web
Keep up the good work.

Thanks John and Max. Although I can't lay claim to capturing those great black and white scenes that we have to largely thank Harry Ainscough for, I do try and copy as many varied areas as possible to show when in the LRO.

Getting regular correspondence these days off people submitting pics to me and some wanting me to send some of the LRO ones to them so they can complete their family tree area photos.

I have around 200 more colour pics to upload soon to the streets ahead and people and places pages and another visit to the LRO coming up to complete the schools section and add to the post war b&W page.

Looking forward to that Ged! Just spent a considerable amount of time looking over your site! I now go to JMU on Byrom Street, its only now I appreciate what it all used to be like, and how much it has changed.

I have just updated by own site, there's two images of Thornside Walk in Gateacre that could be up your street (forgive the pun!), so if your interested, give me a shout! There's also a few from Lee Park which may be of use to you.

Thanks chaps. Russ, that is a fantastic site, I have looked in before but so much more has been added. I think it's brilliant that just ordinary streetscapes are captured - Colour versions of those great images captured by Harry A. and as important as they are right now, one day yours and others like them will be looked at in the same vein when they are no longer there. Great pics of the flats in Gateacre and Lee Park.

I remember the zebra bus in the 1970s or was it like an Everton mint. It was always the 79 to Lee Park or Netherley and it always seemed to pass me when I was up at Hatton's model railway shop on Smithdown road, his original little shop. The nos 4 and 5 to Woolton always seemed to be single deckers and I remember I used to wonder where Lee Park was and other exotic far away places on the front of Ribbles like Lydiate, Thornton and Ormskirk.

Hardly anyone in our square was driving back then, it would seem a mission to get to these places that were just names on a bus. Nowadays it's half an hour tops.

This has to be one of the best Liverpool sites, everytime i go in here i get lost for a few hours...
Can't believe i just found links to an actual picture of my classmates from the early 70's (i must have been saggin that day) but i recognize several of em!

Around 100 LRO and own photographs have been added to various pages on my website below (see home page for which pages are updated each visit)

New items include this photo of Rose Place, Liverpool 3.

On 5th February 1935 the Liverpool Coporation city engineers department took extensive photographs of the inner city area recording delapidated and unsanitary properties including many courts. This is a photograph of 99-105 Rose Place showing some stylish property reminiscent of what's still on view in the south of the city centre.

No.105 is the furthest property situated on the corner of Fox Street and is occupied by William Washington, a butcher. The fancy property on the opposite corner at No.26 Fox Street at its junction with Bute Street is Blackledge's bakery.

Hi Spike,
just looking through your photo's,(some great one's there) and the pic's of Old Swan college reminded me of a visit I made there,a couple of years ago, to the reception desk,in the smaller building. Inside, they (?) had kept the ornate sandstone doorway of the previous building(college?) as a display, and I wondered if this had been saved? I never found out what had happened to the previous building, thinking,maybe, it had been bombed in ww.2,so do you know anything of it's history?

Thanks chaps. Russ, that is a fantastic site, I have looked in before but so much more has been added. I think it's brilliant that just ordinary streetscapes are captured - Colour versions of those great images captured by Harry A. and as important as they are right now, one day yours and others like them will be looked at in the same vein when they are no longer there. Great pics of the flats in Gateacre and Lee Park.

I remember the zebra bus in the 1970s or was it like an Everton mint. It was always the 79 to Lee Park or Netherley and it always seemed to pass me when I was up at Hatton's model railway shop on Smithdown road, his original little shop. The nos 4 and 5 to Woolton always seemed to be single deckers and I remember I used to wonder where Lee Park was and other exotic far away places on the front of Ribbles like Lydiate, Thornton and Ormskirk.

Hardly anyone in our square was driving back then, it would seem a mission to get to these places that were just names on a bus. Nowadays it's half an hour tops.

Thanks Gerrard! It's amazing what does change in such a short amount of time...quite worrying in a way!

Buses back in the day did have that exotic feeling about them...when Glenvale was bought out by Stagecoach, the city lost a bit of it's identity in a way. Anywhere can have buses operated by Arriva or Stagecoach!

Great archive image of Rose Place, I will have to go and have a look at the page in full!

Another 100+ pics added today after a trip around town and to the records office. See the home page for which pages have new additions.

Some cracking court ones of around Lawrence st and St. Andrews street if they were your neck of the woods. High rise around Netherfield rd, long gone churches and some pics from a party I was at friday night then mothers day, sunday.

Hi Spike,
just looking through your photo's,(some great one's there) and the pic's of Old Swan college reminded me of a visit I made there,a couple of years ago, to the reception desk,in the smaller building. Inside, they (?) had kept the ornate sandstone doorway of the previous building(college?) as a display, and I wondered if this had been saved? I never found out what had happened to the previous building, thinking,maybe, it had been bombed in ww.2,so do you know anything of it's history?

Hi Steve

Sorry I missed your post so a bit late replying.

I have never heard about the previous building, but sure would like to know what was there.

I will ask the workmen when I go past about the doorway, doubt it will have survived though.

Hi Spike and Steve. My mate in the late 1970s, and I know Spike's wife went to Old Swan tech but I have no pics or info before that sorry. I looked in the Edwardian A-Z I have and nothing is mentioned on its site, only the May Place girls reformatory school on the other side of Montague Road.

Deprived of its unique dockland waters Liverpool
becomes a Venice without canals, just another city, no
longer of special interest to anyone, least of all the
tourist. Would we visit a modernised Venice of filled in
canals to view its modern museum describing
how it once was?

The "Strange round houses on Mill Lane".
The one with the steps up to it, used to be a sweet shop years ago.

Derby Lane Police Station.
The houses alongside used to be the Fire Brigades houses.
They also had flats behind the station ( behind where Edwards The Jewellers is on Prescot Rd, now )

St. Brendans Hall.
I used to frequent there with family and friends.
( I have the "St Brendans" sign that used to hang above it in the garage ! )

Stanley Abbatoir.
Fantastic pic and yes I do remember the smell
A Cousin of mine worked there in the 70's.
He'd call to our's for his dinner and absolutley stunk !

The Old Swan Tech College:
On a map I have from 1906, I think there were houses on this site and I do remember houses being to the left of the old college ( before Montague Rd ).
I "found" a pic from 1967 on my travels around the net ( can't remember where ) which shows the drive / entrance up to one of these houses, but if anyone doesn't want it displayed here then I can delete it !
Martin

Old Swan Fire / Police Station

Don't know if I've put this info on another thread but here it is, from Simon Ryan the Fire Brigades archivist. I met him when he gave me all the info on my Grandad and when I say all, he had his records / dates etc from when he left school in 1901, his first job was a shop errand boy, his first world war records, to when he passed away in Dec 1957, with photo's etc !
Anyway here's all the info on the buildings surrounding the fire station for future reference:

DERBY LANE
1883 - A new station opened by the WDVFB at 3 Derby La, next door to a school - Lancashire Constabulary opened a Police station
1886 - The premises were extended to provide accommodation for the Foreman
1895 Apr 23 - WC authorised the rental of a 6-stall stable at 20/- per week from the Old Swan & Tuebrook Carriage Co pending the erection of stables to the adjoining Old Swan FS.
Nov - The 2-bay station taken over from the West Derby Volunteer Fire Brigade, it housed a Shand Mason HD Steamer, reel cart and an escape ladder and there was accommodation for the Foreman
Dec 2 - The Surveyor reported to the WC the Head Constable had informed him that telephone instruments in addition to the alarm bells recently fitted were essential. The National Telephone Co had quoted a rental of 15/- per anum for the two instruments here and at Ivanhoe Rd and the surveyor recommended that the communication be established, approved
1896 - On station: HD Steam engine, HD Manual, escape, reel cart, set of ladders
May 28 - Report to the WC regarding proposed building works at Derby La, new engine house, convert the former weights and measures office into stables., fireman?s room, bathroom and kitchen
1897 Nov 29 - WC received a report from the Local Government Board that they had approved a loan of ?2,900 to cover building works at Old Swan [?2,000] Westminster Rd and Lark La fire stations
Dec 13 - WC approved the purchase of land on Greenfield Rd to provide additional space for the new station
1898 Aug 22 - WC approved a tender from J Paterson & Sons, Soho St, Liverpool, of ?1,992 to build the new station, this had been reduced from ?2,369 as only ?2,000 had been borrowed to fund the works.
1899 - The old station and the Foreman?s accommodation were demolished and a new 3-bay station built on an adjoining site
Aug - New station completed
1900 Mar 19 - WC noted the purchase of land for 5 residences from George Grierson for ?150 on Mar 12
1 fronting Greenfield Rd for the Engineer
4 fronting the station yard, estimated the houses would cost ?3,000
Properties deferred and never built, meanwhile
28 Greenfield Rd was leased on a temporary basis, linked to the station by a call bell, the cost of which was approved by the WC on 30 Apr
1901 Mar 11 - WC approved the construction of an examination pit and hose gallows at a cost of ?23-18s-4d
1902 - On station: HD Steamer John Hughes, HD Chemical 1st aid, HD Hose carriage & manual Escape
1905 - WC approved works to attend to the ventilation of the stables, cost estimated at ?38.
1912 - On station: 2 HD Steam engines [Maxwell & ], HD Chemical 1st aid, HD Hose carriage & an escape
1916 - 1 HD Steam engine [Maxwell], HD Chemical 1st aid, HD Hose carriage
Escape on station
May - The last LFB horse drawn appliance to answer a call was the station?s 1st turn chemical engine. Merryweather Fire King SM No 5 went on station
1919 - A second Fire King No 4 on station, kept as brigade reserve
1922 - Belsize Morris MP No2, KB 1817 ?James Heald? on station, replaced the operational SM
1923 - WC approved the plan to build residences on Corporation owned waste land at Old Swan fire station
1924 Sep 23 - WC approved payment of ?121-18s-1d, being the fees due to date relating to the erection of the new married quarters at Old Swan
1925 - The reserve SM was sold
1926 - LPFB?s first reserve MP Belsize, No4, K 1690, on station, manned when required by off duty men who lived in the Greenfield House flats.
1934 - Leyland replaced MP No2 Belsize which became a brigade reserve.
1938 Sep 27 - The WC approved the installation of 2,000g underground fuel tanks and a petrol pump at a cost of ?720 at Longmoor La, Allerton, Old Swan and Garston fire stations. In war it was calculated the LPFB could require 2,000g of fuel per hour.
1939 - Leyland MP No 8 No KB 8411 on station from Longmoor La, reserve 1942
Nov - WC approved that the former Mounted Police saddle room should be converted into a telephone room
1941 - MPNo11 KB 788 on station ex Banks Rd, reserve 1943
1948 Apr 01 - Became CLFS station North 6 now housed 2 Leyland PE and an Austin K2 PST, GLE 870.
1950?s - Report to WC, Derby La was considered as unsuitable. A 3.08 acre site on the East side of Queens Dv north of Alder Rd was identified part of a site extending to over 12 acres bought by the Council in 1954, the remaining land to be developed for housing. The Brigade?s plot was to provide a new HQ, Workshops as well as a replacement station for Derby La, however the land had a restrictive covenant on it and the Brigade reconsidered matters.
An alternative site of 1.125 acres on the West side of Queens Drive, then leased by the City for use as a football field was for the new station only , as it was too small for the remainder of the planned development which was now switched to a site on Edge Lane to be sited with a replacement station for Durning Rd.
1954 April ? The FS Committee approved the alternative plan for the west side of Queens Dv
- Work began to extend the 1st floor over the Hose Repair Shop and store on the ground floor at the rear of the station
1955 - Work on the extension was completed allowing the use of 2 flats in Greenfield House as station accommodation to be discontinued.
- Completion by the City of the purchase of the football field, known as the Sandfield Park site, this was then transferred to the FS Committee.
Planning permission was then granted for the erection of a fire station
1957 - An Automatic Telephone Co, Columbus-Dixon remote control was installed in the Watchroom allowing operation of the new traffic lights on the Prescot Rd / St Oswald St / Derby La junction. The system was switched on at 14.30 on Friday 17th Jan 1958.
1964 - Became station North 3. It was planned the project to build a new station would commence in the FY 1968/69, financial restrictions however meant the project was deferred.
By now the former stables in the yard were in use as a mess room
1971 - There was pressure from Councillors to release the land for housing development, the site having remained derelict for some 18 years; this was however successfully resisted by CFO
1974 - Station passed to Merseyside as South 8, 1963 Dennis F24 WrE(F) 7705 KD & a 1967 Dennis F34 WrT (F) MKD 902F.
1999 - A new 3-bay station opened on Queens Dv. Derby La became a School of Dancing.
By 2005 - The Greenfield Flats next to the church on Greenfield Rd had been demolished
2006 - The Police station closed and was taken over by the Probation Service
The side wall of the engine house was on a slant which made it d tricky job for a driver reversing an appliance into the bay

PS
My Partner Lynne asked the builders who were demolishing it, for the sign and they even dropped it off at mine